Reverend Benny & Mister Sid's At Your Service #57

The right wing may not be extinct, but its days as a controlling power are surely over.

By Glen Bledsoe

(Salem) - I have a relative who hates Obama. She's not very articulate as to why she hates him ("He's another Al Capone" -- which makes no sense whatever), but at a not-so-deep level it boils down to racism.

She like many conservative whites is afraid that blacks are going to treat whites as the whites historically treated blacks. That's the root behind all the ridiculous claims the right is making against health care: euthanasia for the elderly and sex change operations.

That's not entirely accurate. It's not just racism. Objections to health care are also being instigated by the insurance companies. Follow the money, folks.

The right is playing the only game it knows: rumor, misinformation, superstition, conspiracy theory, thinly disguised racism. While that may have served them in the past, it won't do so in the future, nor will it accomplish much in the present.

The radical right may be over-represented in the media, but the fact is their numbers are dwindling. People want health care. (That's one of the things that got Obama elected.) People realize that energy and the environment are issues which can no longer be ignored.

The right wing may not be extinct, but its days as a controlling power are surely over.

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